COBRE: PI 3-KINASE & ITS DOWNSTREAM TARGET BCL-XL IN RPE

描述（由申请人提供）：COBRE计划将显著改善和提高俄克拉荷马州视觉相关基础研究的质量和数量。这将通过资深教师对有前途的初级调查员的指导来实现。长期目标是培养新一代NIH资助的独立首席研究员，他们将继续在参与俄克拉荷马州机构的视觉科学中扩展尖端细胞生物学，微生物学，免疫学，生物化学，神经科学，分子生物学和遗传学研究。 我们已经确定了有前途的初级研究人员，导师，并在俄克拉荷马州健康科学中心和俄克拉荷马州医学研究基金会的大学支持核心模块的资金在最初几年的奖项。导师和项目负责人都有不同的，互补的科学背景和专业知识领域，使这种应用真正的多学科性质。此外，我们已经确定了PJI候选人的研究项目，为未来的竞争性资金在俄克拉荷马州州立大学，兰斯顿大学，俄克拉荷马-诺曼大学，和塔尔萨大学，并将提供启动资金的一个新的视觉研究教员将由动物学的OU-Norman系在第二年的奖励。最后，COBRE将建立一个驻校学者计划，为其他参与机构的教师提供在视觉研究实验室进行研究的机会。 这项投资的最终回报将是知识的提高，并将其转化为治疗和预防使人衰弱和致盲的眼病，这将使该州，国家和世界的所有人受益。此外，所研究的问题的性质和眼睛作为疾病模型使得许多拟议的研究立即适用于更广泛的领域，包括神经变性，癌症，基因治疗，细菌感染性疾病的发病机制，仅举几例。因此，除了视觉科学的内在利益，视觉研究的附带影响是巨大的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The COBRE Program will significantly improve and enhance both the quality and quantity of vision-related fundamental research in Oklahoma. This will be accomplished through the mentoring of promising junior investigators by senior faculty. The long-term goal is to develop a new generation of NIH-funded independent principal investigators who will continue to expand cutting-edge cell biology, microbiology, immunology, biochemistry, neuroscience, molecular biology, and genetics research in the vision sciences at participating Oklahoma institutions. We have identified promising junior investigators, mentors, and supportive core modules at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation for funding in the initial years of the award. Both the mentors and the Project leaders have diverse, complementary scientific backgrounds and areas of expertise, making this application truly multidisciplinary in nature. In addition, we have identified PJI candidates for research projects for future competitive funding at Oklahoma State University, Langston University, the University of Oklahoma-Norman, and the University of Tulsa, and will provide start-up funds for a new vision research faculty member to be recruited by OU-Norman Department of Zoology in the second year of the award. Finally, the COBRE will establish a Scholar-in-Residence program that will provide an opportunity for faculty at other participating institutions to do research in a vision researcher laboratory. The ultimate payoff of this investment will be an enhancement of knowledge and its translation to treatment and prevention of debilitating and blinding eye diseases, which will benefit all of the people in the state, the nation, and the world. Additionally, the nature of the problems under investigation and the eye as a model of disease makes much of the proposed research immediately applicable to more generalized areas including neurodegeneration, cancer, gene therapy, pathogenesis of bacterial infectious diseases, to name only a few. Thus, in addition to intrinsic benefits to vision science, the collateral impact of vision research is substantial.